I played in the first leg of the SCGA's "Bob Hope Trail" member outings today. It was an 8:00 shotgun start and the crazy heat forecasted through the weekend apparently prompted a lot of cancellations... Continue »

I played in the first leg of the SCGA's "Bob Hope Trail" member outings today. It was an 8:00 shotgun start and the crazy heat forecasted through the weekend apparently prompted a lot of cancellations. So it was a little smaller group and more spread out on the course. We started on the 9th hole and never had anyone in front of us or behind us, so it was a nice relaxed 4-hour pace. Thankfully there was a little breeze most of the round and the triple-digit temperatures didn't materialize until the afternoon.

The course was in very good overall condition. It's starting to brown out a little in areas, but the playability was generally quite nice. The tee boxes were great. The fairways were great to play from, though a handful had been recently aerated and I had to knock off a point for that. Same goes for the rough. It was cut low and easy to play from, but a few sections had also been punched. The greens were firm and rolling smooth at medium speeds (quicker than they looked). I was in a couple bunkers and they were excellent.

Overall a solid course with good conditioning and nice private facilities. Staff was great and plenty of drinking water was provided in addition to the box lunches. That said, there isn't much specific I'll remember about this course. Pretty traditional old school Coachella Valley layout that I wouldn't be able to pick out in a lineup with so many similar looking courses around. Obviously, you are paying somewhat for the club exclusivity and one of the current rotation courses for the Bob Hope/Humana/Career Builder/whatever sponsor is next tournament. Very good, but not great.